semi random travel journal excerpt

07/04/08 Antigua, Guatemala

Fireworks are not the most reasuring sound in a country where shotguns outnumber people 3 to 1...

Just came from an amazing taco joint called orale taco (“cool taco” !). the line was exposed and the cooks and i had a bonding moment laughing about this girl whose titties were all over the place. she took spilling out of her shirt to a whole new level and those dudes thought it was hilarious and I thought that was hilarious and they thought it was even more hilarious that I thought they were hilarious. What a mess! good folks, amazing food, some kind of neon green salsa that wasn’t spicy at all but tasted incredible! (read as incred-eeblay, not incredi-bell)

at the ruins this morning I bumped into my man Gaston and we hung out and explored the place together. He is a good guy if (totally) depressive. I think that makes me like him more. He knows how to be quiet, and thats nice. Its good to hang out with someone and not talk sometimes. I was sad to see him go the opposite direction at the end of the afternoon but hopefully we will meet again somewhere. My favorite oddball buddy so far.

So, as it turns out, the bus wasn’t direct like I thought and I am back in shitty ass antigua with a million american d-bags in a lame hostel that feels like a fucking white man’s colonial outpost or something.

drove through guatemala city on the way back... holy shit! it was like a shanty town for miles and miles. like a favela of 5 million people. Which, minus the super rich (?) I guess thats what it is.

tomorrow I am leaving for panajachel. I have to walk across town at 7 tomorrow morning to get picked up. hope panaj/atitlan is cooler than antigua...

07/05 Zula Hostel, San Pedro de Atitlan, Guatemala

Decided to come straight to San Pedro today. why? no good reason. took the advice of some hippies who said panajachel was gringotenango. I completely hated it here at first but it has begun to grow on me.... thing is to get away, far away, from the white people (israelis?). I went up into the actual town, which was very fucked up (i would say “ghetto” but calling something “ghetto” in guatemala is like saying water is wet). Ate a bunch of street food. Had a crazy purple kiwi like thing called a placaya (the mayan ladies thought it was hilarious that I thought this fruit was interesting...like wtf, you never seen a placaya before?!?) then I hit a fried chicken cart in the street...shit, i mean, we’ll see how it ends up later tonight right? Walking through the market a man approached me to say “amigo, buen provecho con el pollo!” totally psyched i guess to see a gringo doing some non-gringo shit. he was either pleased with my interest in dirty-oil street-fried chicken, or he knows what state my stomach will be in shortly. eh, either way. the french fries were great. Excited about chichicastenango tomorrow, and even more excited about getting away from these fucking hippies the day after.

07/06/08 Zoola, San Pedro de Atitlan, Guate 7:00

So this place is basically an Israeli pot head hang out. fucking pot cookies on the menu! they have something called a “bhang lassi” which I didn’t believe could possibly be a bhang lassi. The social scientist (pothead) in me had to investigate. Well, it’s real alright. holy shit is it real... I wonder how these kids stay out of handcuffs? could be kind of scary business, I hope they are at least making a lot of money at this...

the israelis here evidently have no problem with their kids watching them smoke pot. there were lots of toddlers around in the common area last night (in and of itself strange to me?) and a 12 year old... interesting... maybe they have never heard of a contact high? maybe they don’t care? you aint going to work is you?

full disclosure for thearticles: "you aint goin to work is you?" was a question posed to a friend in atlanta after being hit in the grill with second hand crack smoke at the reynoldstown/inman park marta station.